Sudden marriage now subject of court case

Jewell Hall, 87, met Marjorie Messer, 58, in February. He hired her as a live-in caretaker, and they were married a month later.

Jewell Hall, 87, met Marjorie Messer, 58, in February. He hired her as a live-in caretaker, and they were married a month later.

Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News

Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News

Image
1of/3

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 3

Jewell Hall, 87, met Marjorie Messer, 58, in February. He hired her as a live-in caretaker, and they were married a month later.

Jewell Hall, 87, met Marjorie Messer, 58, in February. He hired her as a live-in caretaker, and they were married a month later.

Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News

Sudden marriage now subject of court case

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

After Jewell Hall's wife of six decades died in 2009, chatting and flirting with the waitresses at Jim's Restaurant in Helotes was one of life's small pleasures for the former World War II bomber crew man.

When Hall, 87, mentioned over coffee early this year that he was looking for a live-in female caretaker, help was soon on the way. A waitress named Patty had a cousin in Houston who just happened to be available.

And when Hall met Marjorie Messer on Feb. 19, a deal was quickly struck. Messer, 58, moved in that day and began organizing his life. After a medical crisis, she said, they became much closer.

“He was terrified. He said, ‘Please don't leave me. Everyone else has left me.' He called me his wing man and my heart almost broke. He said, ‘Will you marry me?'” she recalled in a recent court hearing.

After that, Hall's life would never be the same.

On March 21, Hall and Messer were married in Kendall County. Ten days later, $16,836 was withdrawn from his main bank account and deposited in a new joint account at Messer's bank, according to court records.

On April 11, Hall was admitted by Messer to a nursing home. A week later, he changed his will, disinheriting his three children and giving everything to her. He also gave her medical and financial powers of attorney.

Also in April, a lawyer in Helotes was consulted about deeding Hall's $186,000 house to Messer, but he declined. And about that time, senior welfare officials were alerted.

“Adult Protective Services received an intake on Jewell Hall on April 16, 2011 alleging that a moving truck was at Mr. Hall's house and that people, who did not look like movers, were hauling things out of Mr. Hall's household,” wrote an agency lawyer to Bexar County Probate Judge Tom Rickhoff on April 20.

The letter also described worrisome financial transactions. Rickhoff quickly appointed a temporary guardian. When Hall was examined by a psychiatrist in mid-May, the diagnosis was serious dementia.

“Mr. Hall's impairments are so severe that it is a virtual medical certainty that he has been severely incapacitated for over at least one year,” noted Dr. Raymond Faber.

On Nov. 29, a trial will be held on a motion by the guardian to annul Hall's marriage to Messer. In a separate matter, Messer has been charged with “theft from elderly by deception in amount of $1,500 to $20,000,” a third-degree felony.

According to court records, she had at least two earlier arrests for theft.

She declined to speak to the San Antonio Express-News. Her lawyer, Rafael Leal did not return a call.

However, in court testimony and in a letter to the court, she insisted her motives were pure.

“We have a special communication and he trusts me. I would never do anything consciously to violate that trust,” she wrote Rickhoff in May, adding she was trying to “transform our home into a safe, secure and peaceful refuge.”

Testifying on Oct. 28, she also denied taking financial advantage of Hall.

“Every penny is accounted for and was spent for him and the benefit of his home,” she said.

However, when pressed by Bill Bailey, Hall's court-appointed lawyer, about most of Hall's money ending up in her personal bank account, she replied, “I don't recall.”

“In plain English, this is a case about a very elderly gentleman who developed dementia, and these people saw an opportunity to exploit him,” Bailey said later.

Attempts to contact Hall's three children, all of whom live out of town, were unsuccessful.

One daughter, in a lengthy email included in the court file, described the downward course of Hall's life after he met Messer.

“He was still driving, going to physical therapy in Helotes, working out on the treadmill, going out to get food to eat or eating at restaurants, and had a positive outlook on life,” wrote Cindy Carleson of Phoenix.

“A few weeks after Marjorie moved in, he started going downhill fast, emotionally and mentally,” she wrote.

Carleson also wrote that Messer began isolating Hall from his family, was abusive to him, and was confrontational to his visiting daughter.

“She was continually belittling him when I was on the phone with him, saying how Dad did not know what he was talking about and had no memory. He complained to me about how she was treating him like a little boy,” Carlson wrote in the email.

Eventually, she came to believe that Messer was mentally unstable, and began to fear her, she wrote.

Hall now spends his days in a nursing home on Huebner Road, getting around in a wheelchair. His doctors think he has cancer and have given him less than a year to live, according to Bailey.

Although back in May, he reportedly told a court investigator he did not remember getting married. After a recent visit from Messer, he spoke of her fondly last week.

“Margie is my wife. I will not talk bad about her,” he said, while also sternly admonishing a visiting reporter. “Don't write anything bad about her.”